MCI Communications Corp. has launched its long-awaited service that enables Web surfers to click a button to speak to a call center agent.
But analysts said numerous limitations in the new network-MCI Click'nConnect service will limit its popularity in the first release. For example, unlike competitors' Web call center integration offerings, Click'n-Connect requires a multimedia PC with a microphone and Internet telephony software on the caller's end. And the service does not coordinate Web page views between the caller and call center agent.
MCI launched Click'nConnect at the recent ComNet '98 show here. It is based on MCI's Vault platform, which the company unveiled a year ago. Vault provides a path between the public switched telephone network and the Internet using gateways from NetSpeak Corp.
A key idea behind Vault is to support Web surfing and voice applications concurrently over a single telephone line. In that sense, MCI's approach to Web call center integration differs from AT&T's interactiveAnswers service and Sprint Corp.'s Give Me a Call service, both of which require two access lines (NW, Dec. 15, 1997, page 1).
Users of Click'nConnect place a button on their Web site that, when clicked, launches an IP telephony call via the NetSpeak gateway that terminates at a call center agent's telephone.
MCI officials said in the first release, the agent is not able to see where in the corporate Web site the caller is located and does not necessarily know that it is a Click'nConnect call.
"It's strictly voice over the Internet," said Chris Bogdanski, MCI's director of call center marketing. "In future releases, we'll offer push and pull capabilities."
Still, for some Web sites the feature may offer a convenient way to get indecisive buyers to make a decision on a purchase. It also could attract those more willing to state their credit card numbers than type them into cyberspace.
Consumer market
Analysts said the initial market would be limited to consumer-to-business applications because corporations generally do not make all the required hardware and software available to users. And even for home users, "I don't know any of my friends who are using their PC as a voice communications device at the moment," said Peter Bernstein, president of Infonautics Consulting, Inc., a Ramsey, N.J., telecommunications and IT research firm.
MCI did not release prices for Click'nConnect, but carrier officials said users would pay four fees: an installation charge, a monthly fixed charge, a per-call transaction fee and the regular 800/888 rate negotiated between MCI and the user. Click'n-Connect currently works with 800 and 888 numbers but not with 900 numbers, ruling out certain fee-paid technical support hot lines.
